MCA #-4, Friday Evening

[shapethecentury]

Today was just another day for Bucky. Like most days, when he wasn't out, he was sitting by the dining table with his notebooks and the laptop. Researching, reading, learning. Filling in the gaps - less in his memory, these days. More in his knowledge, in his understanding of the world as it was now.

In his understanding of his place in it.

Christmas didn't really factor into that. There were no decorations in this sub-basement apartment. Barely anything else to begin with, really. Just him and his piles and piles of notebooks, and whatever furniture had been here to begin with.

But he'd bought oranges. They were still sitting on the kitchen counter, ripe and waiting.

He didn't want to talk about it.

[ooc: Expecting one!]

Comments

[weirderthanthou]

At Thanksgiving, James had shown up to her place with microwave meals, and it had... been kind of nice, until he'd freaked out and left.

So... Jesse was just going to... try to return the favor? With pizza, but that was a detail.

Don't be nervous, you can always just leave the pizza at the door if you have to.

She sighed. Rang the doorbell. Waited.

[shapethecentury]

No one ever rang Bucky's doorbell.

(Not even Steve, not in a long time.)

He stayed very still. Listened. Waited.

(HYDRA would probably not ring the doorbell either, but he couldn't quite trust a 'probably'.)

[weirderthanthou]

Jesse waited what she felt was a reasonable amount of time, then rung it again.

"James?" she called. "I have pizza. If you want some."

Smooth.

[shapethecentury]

Oh.

It was her. That was --

Bucky didn't really know what that was. How he felt. (If he felt.) Any of that. But he rose slowly from his seat, and made his way towards the door.

Still quietly, though. Still deciding if he wanted to actually open it.

[weirderthanthou]

"I can just... leave one on the steps if you want me to?" Jesse asked the door, after another... long moment of waiting.

[shapethecentury]

Guess he needed to make his choice.

... He wasn't sure when he actually had, even as he found himself opening the door.

"You didn't have to."

Most people said 'hello', Buck.

[weirderthanthou]

"You didn't have to bring me Thanksgiving dinner either," Jesse pointed out practically. "Now it's Christmas. I figured it was as good a time as any to return the favor."

[shapethecentury]

"Those just appeared."

Great argument for why he'd brought them over.

[weirderthanthou]

"You could have kept them," Jesse said, one corner of her mouth turning up. "Anyway, it's not a big deal."

[shapethecentury]

It seemed like a big deal, somehow. Bucky hesitated just a little too long, just long enough that it became obvious.

Then he stepped back a little. Opened the door a little further. "So, uh. You wanna come in?"

[weirderthanthou]

"If you won't mind," Jesse said.

That was an invitation, Jess.

She took a careful step inside.

[shapethecentury]

Bucky took a careful step aside.

The apartment was smaller than hers, by far. And sparse, judging by the combined living and dining room the door from the hallway opened into. Just furniture with very little character.

And piles of notebooks on the desk and on the otherwise empty bookcase by the couch.

[weirderthanthou]

"You have an oven, right?" Jesse said, casting him a quick smile.

I'm not surprised his apartment is almost empty.

Admittedly, it wasn't as if Jesse had decorated that much, herself.

[shapethecentury]

"Uh, yeah, through there," Bucky said, nodding towards the kitchen. Then he moved to lead her there, past the dining area, pressing the laptop closed as he passed it.

(The notebooks by it were already closed.)

The kitchen looked the same as the rest of the apartment. Nothing much there - except two oranges sitting on the counter.

[weirderthanthou]

"Were you planning on cooking anything?" Jesse asked, glancing briefly at the oranges.

She set the pizza boxes down on an empty bit of counter, and walked to the oven.

[shapethecentury]

"Not really."

He had leftovers in the fridge, had been planning to heat those up.

[weirderthanthou]

"Then I guess I got here just in time," Jesse said, tossing him a wry smile before she started fiddling with the oven. "How've you been?"

[shapethecentury]

Since his freakout, or just in general? Not that it mattered, because the answer was going to be the same.

"Fine."

That was what people said, right?

"You?"

[weirderthanthou]

"Annoyed the school board endangered the island with an untested weather satellite instead of just doing maintenance on the old one like I asked them to," Jesse said dryly.

[shapethecentury]

"Huh." He should have sounded more surprised, but couldn't muster up any. "So that's what that was."

[weirderthanthou]

And people called Jesse 'weirdly calm in the face of weird stuff'. "Yeah," she said, as she carefully removed the first pizza from its packaging. "You run into any trouble?"

[shapethecentury]

"Not really." There was a pause, as he found himself just watching her for a few seconds. He was still hovering near the doorway into the room. "Wouldn't really call any of it trouble."

Well. Metal arm, super soldier. All that kind of skewed his perception some.

[weirderthanthou]

"I guess it depends on how good you are at dealing with angry reindeer," Jesse said wryly. "I'm betting you don't have like, a special pizza plate or anything."

[shapethecentury]

Bucky just shook his head.

He really did not.

[weirderthanthou]

"Well, here's hoping I don't wreck your oven," Jesse said, and tossed him a wry smile.

She slid the pizza into the oven, on the top rack.

Am I being weird?